The Leadbelly

14 Orchard St. (646-596-9142)

This cocktail-and-oyster bar on the Lower East Side has an enviable pedigree: it shares owners (and a block) with the “seasonal British” fashion-crowd favorite the Fat Radish and a set designer with Wes Anderson. Order a hummus plate, and an elegant array of creamy dip, crispy flatbread, and delicate crudités (radish, cauliflower, top-on carrot) is delivered swiftly from across the street, in a waxed-cardboard box. There are also crab-avocado toasts, burrata, and four types of oysters, shucked on the premises. The room is a cave of carefully chosen curiosities, from the curved brass bar to the collection of vintage suitcases to the terrariums dangling in the bathrooms. The crowd, a young, stylish, international mix, might as well be extras. But the cocktails are unfussy and topnotch, classier versions of classics, like the Whiskey Ginger—made with the root, plus the right proportions of Jameson, lemon, and honey—and the East Pole Manhattan, which is actually more like the lesser-known Brooklyn, made with Bulleit rye, amaro, cherry Heering, and bitters. Depending on the evening, you can sip them to the dulcet tones of a live bossa-nova trio or the punchy arrangements of a ragtime pianist. After ten, a d.j. spins funk and soul on a pair of turntables that pops out of a retrofitted armoire. ♦